We only decided to go out there when Jamie got to the mixed doubles final. He called on the Wednesday lunchtime to say that the final was going to be played on the Thursday which caught us by surprise. I packed my bag, chucked my passport in, and went round to my dad's house. Mum was out playing golf so I said, "If you want to come I've got flights on hold and you are going to have to get packed in 15 minutes. Just remember your pills and your passport. If you forget anything else we can buy it over there." He left a note on the kitchen table for my mum saying: "Sorry. Gone to New York." And that was it.

While they were in the air Andy Murray won his quarter-final against Argentina's Juan Martín del Potro to reach his first grand slam semi-final against Spain's Rafael Nadal, the world No1

Judy Murray

I sat pretty much the whole way with my fingers crossed on both hands. And then when we landed I switched my Blackberry on and there were some texts saying "What a match" so I turned to my dad – we weren't even in the same row because we were so last-minute – and said "Andy's won" and he said, "Thank goodness for that." So we ended up getting a treat because we saw Jamie's final and then the Nadal match.

Tropical storm Hanna was spinning up the eastern seaboard. The men's semi-finals were scheduled back-to-back for the benefit of television, the so-called Super Saturday. Roger Federer was due to play Novak Djokovic first in the Arthur Ashe Stadium at noon

Brian Earley

Tournament referee

The weather forecast for Saturday was iffy for the whole day with little guarantee of any sustained break. Most people who had tickets would have expected a 12 noon start like it has been for years, but CBS [the host broadcaster] came to us and said if we wanted to start at 11am that was OK. If we had started them both at the same time we could have been out of tennis by 1.30pm. That would have been very unfair to people who expected to see both matches. People pay a lot of money and expect to have tennis all day. We didn't think we would get it but there was a chance, so we put Murray and Nadal on Louis Armstrong, though it should really have started at 12 noon prompt.

Federer v Djokovic began at around 11am in the Arthur Ashe Stadium. Murray's match started over an hour later in the Louis Armstrong Stadium

Judy Murray

I was surprised they didn't start the matches at the same time because all everybody had been talking about the day before was that there was a storm coming and that they were pretty sure that it would hit around 3pm, which is exactly when it did. But the Federer match was always going to go on first.

Jeff Tarango

BBC Radio 5 Live commentator It was great there was a first-come-first-served basis on the seating, so anyone who had a grounds pass could run over and get a front-row seat. It was like when you get the extra day at Wimbledon on Centre Court and you get that element of crowd – not the people who are used to paying $2,000 for a seat, but the people who were really dying to be there. Andy sucks up that kind of environment. It's the desire, he's a grinder and I think it kind of threw Nadal off because he wanted to be centre stage.

Judy Murray

When the Federer match finished it started to fill up quickly. At one point I looked round and Greg Norman and Chris Evert had appeared at the back of our box. I turned round to say something to my dad – who I won't sit beside because he mutters all the time – and did a double take.

It was humid and planes taking off from La Guardia flew over the court. Nadal frequently looked up. Murray, cocooned in concentration, took the first set dropping only three points on his serve

Judy Murray

Andy was serving well, but I had watched him play Nadal in Madrid where he also served unbelievably well only to lose the first set on a tie-break and the second set 6-4, so I knew it would not be over until the last ball was hit. But I was thinking "Gosh, if he can keep this up he has a real chance ... just don't let it rain."

Tarango

Louis Armstrong is a much quicker court than Arthur Ashe and that played into Andy's hands. He was playing down-the-line shots when he normally plays everything cross-court. And every time he played down the line he was winning the point. Nadal didn't have any answers.

Murray took the second set on the tie-break, but dropped his serve for the first time at the beginning of the third set. After just over two hours' play, and with Murray 3–2 down, the rain began – slowly at first but making the lines slippery. Then the storm broke. The match would have to be finished the next day

Earley

We told the players before they left that we thought it could be 1.30 or 4.30 on the Sunday.

Yet spectators had already been told it would be 4.30, with TV determined to have it in the slot scheduled for the final

Earley

It seems like the spectators knew before the players and that was a mistake.

Judy Murray

We saw Andy at the end of that first day when we went to the hotel in the cars together. I tend not to speak to him about his matches unless he starts the conversation. I always say "well done, you are playing great" or whatever, but never go into it unless he wants to talk about it. You don't want to make him uptight or complacent. He has to get his head around it himself and obviously he speaks to Miles [Maclagan, his coach] more when they go on to the practice court.

On Sunday the match was moved to the main court, Arthur Ashe. By 4.30 it was virtually full

Judy Murray

It was a completely different scenario: a different court, packed from the outset. He was going into a half-finished match in the lead against the world No1. At the start of the match you go in thinking there is nothing to lose, and on the second day you're thinking, "Gee, he's got so much to lose now, because he is just a set away from it." The crowd was loving the battle and wanted more of it. Nadal's matches always bring the physical challenge. I think that the slightly smaller Louis Armstrong court, with the edges of the court closer to the crowd, had worked in Andy's favour. Nadal quite likes it when there is a lot of space around him.

Tarango

You could see that Nadal was a lot more comfortable, the speed of the ball was much more for him.

Nadal won the third set 6–4 and the fourth set got under way

Barry Millns

Sky Sports courtside reporter

Will Ferrell was in one of the corporate boxes and there was a funny moment during the fourth set where the camera picked up Will during a change of ends. He saw himself on the big screen, raised his right arm and pulled back his sleeve and pumped his biceps like Andy did at Wimbledon and that drew a big laugh from the crowd. Andy saw it on the big screen and smiled.

Nadal went 3–1 up in the fourth, having saved seven break points in the second game

Tarango

We were thinking if Andy didn't win that fourth set that he would be in real trouble because we thought Nadal would come back and get him.

Judy Murray

With somebody like Nadal who runs everything down, and is so physically and mentally strong, you have to stay out there and take everything that is thrown at you, but when Nadal was a break up in the fourth set I wondered if Andy had let an opportunity slip. Andy was strong enough physically to cope, but it did cross my mind that maybe he had let his chance go.

Millns

You were thinking, "OK here we go, Nadal's going to come back and win" – and then that fourth set was amazing, the way Murray found a new level.

Tarango

Andy again raised his game just when we thought he was out of it and this time the crowd were waiting for something exciting to happen. I don't think he's ever experienced having that kind of a backing or a following before. New Yorkers want the underdog to win, even though he's No4 in the world nobody thought that Nadal could be beaten last summer because he was having such a great year. It was really one of those underdog moments and I think that's what America is all about, so it was really fitting for the US Open. I thought it was great. We were eating it up, we were so excited.

Andy Murray

I probably played the match of my life and it was only a week or so earlier I was two points away from losing to Jürgen Melzer [in the third round]. It was mentally so huge for me. When I went down in the fourth set I might not necessarily have come back from that before. I played aggressively and took the ball on.

The final score was 6–2, 7–6 (5), 4–6, 6–4, his first win over Nadal in six attempts, and it set up a final the next day against Roger Federer

Andy Murray

I had been capable of doing that to him for a couple of sets in Australia last year, and obviously both of us improved since then. I just think with age and maturity and understanding your own game, you know how to play against the best players. I've figured out how to beat the top guys.

Millns

We put in an interview request and I waited with the cameraman. When he came off I suddenly turned around and there was Will Ferrell with, I presume, his wife. Andy came in with his agent, Patricio, who introduced Andy to Will and his wife. I stuck my microphone between the two of them. On the one hand I thought I was perhaps prying into a private conversation, but then they were standing in a corridor in public and I thought "I'll get killed if I don't put my microphone here." So, I just stood there and waited to see what happened. Will said to him: "Well, that was easy." It was this really dry sense of humour I think Andy really likes. Then Nadal did his press conference and admitted that Andy was better on the day, or two days.

Judy Murray

Coming through this match was really significant because Andy had already beaten Federer a couple of times at this point, but he had never beaten Nadal. It gave him an enormous amount of confidence. By the time the match had finished there was nobody about. It was eerily quiet. Then before you knew it, it was the final.

Tarango

I thought there was a chance Andy could win but I don't think there was anyone on the planet who could have beaten Federer. I put my lucky Scottish pants on, but it just wasn't on the cards.